I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

Years before the term “curator” entered the conversation as shorthand for artists who organize what’s already around them instead of generating something altogether new, the New Jersey-based indie band Yo La Tengo were curators: a group who seemed to take their influences more seriously than their originality, who brought together disparate styles—cheeky bossa nova (“Center of Gravity”), noisy Beach Boys covers (“Little Honda”), 10-minute drones (“Spec Bebop”), and two-minute country pop (“One PM Again”)—in ways that felt whole.

To 21st-century ears, the range of I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One might sound familiar—after all, with the musical universe at your fingertips, why not listen to everything?—but in 1997, it was a quiet revolution: Here was indie rock without guitars (“Autumn Sweater”) and feedback-heavy art songs made by the quiet family who runs the corner store or lives upstairs (“We’re an American Band”).

The template isn’t so much the pop album as the mixtape or playlist—a form that, when done well, can open your ears to new sounds and connections. And while they sing about romance with sweetness (“My Little Corner of the World”) and reticence (“Shadows”), you feel their bond the most when they say nothing at all (“Green Arrow”).